Survive, Adapt, Win Chapter 2 (Original chapter Chapter 43)

Later that Night

Meeting Room, PRT Building

"What do we have?" Piggot asked briskly. The overweight woman leaned forward, her face impassive.

"At approximately 22:50, the Rogue Cape Commander called in to the PRT hotline reporting that she had just foiled a raid on the ABB by the Empire, during which she rendered both parties insensate. Lung was in the area, five minutes out, and she recommended getting someone there to stop Lung from killing the Empire thugs." Armsmaster reported in a monotone.

"I was able to get there in time to warn Lung off." Velocity added.

"OK, fine…results?" the Director asked.

"We've confiscated at least a million dollars' worth of rifles, handguns, shotguns and the like from the ABB storehouse, not to mention drugs, contraband items and several leads on the ABB's prostitution ring." Miss Militia replied, a hard look in her eyes at the last item.

"Excellent. The only problem is that it wasn't one of our Capes who took the place down!" Piggot growled, "What have the ABB and Empire grunts said about Commander and her projections?"

"Correlating their stories, as well as examining the scene, has revealed the likely operation timeline." Armsmaster replied, activating a screen that showed a wire-grid mock-up of the street where the battle took place, "Just before the ABB and Empire clashed, they were hit by a smoke bomb of some sort, as well as some sort of wide-area electrical stun device. Anyone outside the smoke was pinned down by what sound like laser-delivered Tasers, while the ones inside the smoke were charged by men wielding some sort of Taser Shotgun. The entire fight, exaggerations removed, lasted less than three minutes. Apparently, Commander removed their money from their pockets, took most of the cash they had in the storehouse, $500,000, as well as a crate load of some of Bakuda's Tinkertech explosives. Commander then evacuated the scene after reporting the approach of Lung."

Piggot was silent for a moment as she stared at the screen, which was showing an animation of the fight's results, but not the figures of Commander or her projections. "Opinions?"

"The operation was carried out with military precision." Armsmaster stated bluntly, "It was almost certainly Commander's work. She knew, somehow, that the Empire were making a move on the ABB storehouse and planned to take advantage of it to the limit. She has also somehow been able to upgrade her projections' weapons to more advanced variants."

"So…a Trump rating added to her Master rating then?" the Director mused.

"I'd say so. At least Trump 3 until we have a better idea of the exact limits of her power." Miss Militia suggested.

"Trump 4." Armsmaster disagreed, "She was able to upgrade her shotguns, rockets, grenades and probably her sniper rifles, all at once. That isn't an insignificant upgrade."

"Trump 4 it is." Piggot nodded, "Why do you think she left so quickly?"

"Lung was coming at her." Velocity stated with a raised eyebrow, "That's all the reason you need right there."

"Yes, but why has she deliberately avoided all members of the Protectorate and Wards since she met Armsmaster?" she gave the armoured hero a sour look, "I have seen the recording; she has expressed a desire to work alongside us, but her actions are displaying a degree of reluctance that lays doubt to that."

"Armsmaster was a bit too firm in stressing that she should join the Wards." Miss Militia said with a sharp look at her leader, "I could tell via her body language that she didn't like how strong he was coming onto her."

"I have no romantic intentions towards her." Armsmaster objected, misconstruing her words.

"She meant that you were being too forceful when you were advertising the Wards program, Armsmaster." Piggot rolled her eyes at the man's obtuseness, "Well that is something to take into account for future encounters with Commander. Miss Militia, you are to be the primary contact with her. I want you to at least get her to be a PRT Affiliate. Preferably a Ward, but I'll take what I can get."

Next Day

Conference Room, X-COM Base, Taylor Hebert's Mindscape

"So Doctor Vahlen, Mr Shen, what have you discovered about the bounty Strike One was able to retrieve from the ABB?" Taylor asked. She was dressed as Commander, minus the helmet and mask. Sitting around the table were Central, Dr Shen and Dr Vahlen.

"The devices that were retrieved are for the most part grenades, handheld explosives." The Head of Research stated, "From what we have gathered judging from her antics at Cornwell University, each grenade is capable of some form of exotic effect; the transmutation of matter into glass, HE detonation, time dilation…the list is extensive. Researching them will be time consuming and sporadic, as there is no way to tell what effect that the grenades will have until we throw them, all there are four or five obvious physical differences between them."

"Bakuda likely did that for the ABB grunts that use them and want to know what grenades did what." Taylor deduced, "Let off one of each type, then take one apart of each group so we can properly research them and their effects. We'll have another meeting once the grenades have been identified. Anything else that Bakuda left us?"

Just some landmines." The German doctor replied dryly, "Really, what could criminals possibly need landmines for?"

"A way to counter Squealer?" Shen suggested.

"Very likely." The bespectacled girl nodded. The Tinker of the Archer's Bridge Merchants specialised in vehicles, and either heavy weaponry or mines were needed to take them down.

"Once we have identified the grenades, we should be able to identify the landmines." Vahlen put in.

"Good. Central, what's the situation with the base in general?" Taylor turned to her second in command.

"Thanks to your efforts Commander, we have managed to expand the barracks section by quite a bit." The man said with a nod, "We now have space for fifty more soldiers in addition to our current roster of twenty, not including Base support staff and technicians. The security division barracks has also been upgraded and we're working on upgrading their weaponry as well."

"Mr Shen, how's things in Engineering?"

"We're getting along rather well." The elderly man said with a nod, "Additional engineers and tech would be welcome as always."

"The same applies in the Science and Research Department." Vahlen added.

"So noted. I'll summon additional personnel when I have the spare time." Taylor said dryly, "Now, we need to think about what options we have going forward. Leaving Lung unmolested leaves a bad taste in my mouth, Dragon of Kyushu or no."

The three adults exchanged a look before Central pressed a few buttons, causing a small hologram to appear in the middle of the table of some odd amber-like substance.

"During the war against EXALT and the Ethereals, a mysterious substance was discovered by our originals that was dubbed 'MELD'." Central explained, "This was because it is actually made up of billions of nanomachines, made up of both mechanical and organic material and it bonded very quickly and easily to both organic material or machines. When we arrived here in your power, Commander, we had none. I had an inventory conducted and discovered that we have a considerable amount of the stuff now."

This made the brunette frown. "How did we get it then?"

"I suspect that it is a spoil of war from your defeat of Hookwolf and Oni Lee, Commander." Vahlen said with an equally puzzled frown, "There was no sign of it before that and we hadn't checked the storeroom since our first inventory. Perhaps fighting and defeating Parahumans grants us access to MELD via your power?"

"It would make sense, to a degree." Taylor agreed slowly, "Talk about a reward-based incentive scheme. So, what can this MELD stuff do?"

"In the case of machines, it allows them to be built very rapidly and, with a specialised facility, we can cybernetically enhance our soldiers with powered armour and limbs." Shen stated.

"My department can use the MELD to enhance the bodies of our soldiers via genetic enhancements." Vahlen added, "Stronger muscles, bones, etcetera. Again, it requires a specialist facility to do this."

"Volunteers only." Taylor ordered immediately, "I won't muck around with someone's limbs or genetics without their full knowledgeable consent."

"Roger that." Central nodded, "Meld can also be used in the construction of laser weaponry, which, aside from the laser Tasers, we've had on the back burner for a while. I've read what I can via the internet about Lung and I can tell you straight up that Tasers ain't gonna do much against him, Commander."

"Yeah, figured." Taylor sighed, "Bullets aren't going to do much either. Do it, Vahlen. Get the laser tech up and running ASAP and fire the specs to Dr Shen. I'd better replace my pistol for a laser one when you're done."

"I'll only be able to make standard laser weaponry." Vahlen warned, "Laser Rifles and pistols. Specialisation into heavy and sniper weaponry will require a bit more attention."

"That's fine. Get the grenade research done. If we can duplicate Tinkertech or at least use the principles of how they achieve their unique effects, it will be a major boon to the troops." The girl nodded, "Central, have we power to spare for these two rooms that the doctors have been talking about?"

"Yes Ma'am." the officer nodded, "If we get started today, we should be finished by the end of the week."

"Make it so." Taylor nodded back, "I'd better be getting back to my body. Dinner won't cook itself. Contact me if anything unexpected turns up."

"Yes, Commander." The three adults replied in unison as Taylor's mental form flickered and vanished.

Same Time

Taylor Hebert's Bedroom, Hebert Residence.

Taylor's eyes flicked open and she sat up on her bed, stretched and yawned. When she visited her base, she always slept like a log. It didn't matter how much sleep she had had before, she dropped like a switch being flipped.

Padding into the kitchen after splashing her face with water, she started throwing together some tagliatelle with a carbonara sauce for dinner. She reduced the amount of egg and cheese in the sauce, because her Dad didn't like too much in a sauce. Given that he loved grilled cheese, it puzzled her, but she ascribed it to him being picky.

She was able to visit her mindscape base so often due to the fact that she had been withdrawn from Winslow. Danny Hebert had put his foot down and refused to allow her to go back to 'that hellhole' for even one day longer once she had gotten out of the hospital. She had been in a coma for over two weeks thanks to the base getting set up. It had taken that long to repair damage done to the copy of the base in the transit to her mind, as well as bring enough energy reactors online for her to be able to wake up.

The settlement from the school was far more substantial than it could have been, thanks to the surprising amount of press coverage that the Locker incident had generated. They say that everyone has fifteen minutes of fame, and the students of Winslow had gabbled about what had been done to me and, while they hadn't gone so far as to name any names, the entirety of the faculty of Winslow had ended up looking either incompetent or willing to assist in Taylor's bullying.

Blackwell had wanted shot of her, regardless of the cost. Losing a substantial amount of money beat having the press hounding her until Taylor came back. By all accounts, she was still in hot water from the BOE.

"I'm home!" came her Dad's greeting about thirty minutes later. She had everything timed to perfection, so she was serving up as soon as he pulled his coat off and walked into the kitchen.

"Welcome home." Taylor smiled at him, "Good day?"

"Yes, actually." Dad smiled back as he sat down, "That new Independent Cape, Commander took out over forty Empire and ABB thugs last night. A few men who were recruited by those gangs recently have slunk back with their tails between their legs. Apparently getting beaten up wasn't in the game plan for them."

Taylor pulled a face. "Idiots."

"Perhaps, but this is just the latest defeat those two gangs have been dealt by Commander." Danny looked worried for a moment, "He'd better be careful. These people play for keeps."

It took quite a bit of Taylor's self-control to not react to that. "Eh, I'm sure he or she is fine Dad."

"Why say that? Isn't Commander a boy?" he raised an eyebrow at her as she served up some sauce on top of his tagliatelle.

"On PHO a few [Verified PRT] people have confirmed that Commander is female." She replied as she served herself some food, "Of course, people like XXXVoid_CowboyXXX are saying that it's a lie or a bluff or something, but most people ignore what he says."

Her Dad snorted. "Yeah, conspiracy nuts are always there, on the internet or writing books. Even I've heard of this Void Cowboy fella. He sounds like he has more than a few screws loose."

Silence reigned aside from the clatter of cutlery on crockery and appreciative humming from the two people in the house. Even as she ate though, Taylor's mind was on the night ahead.

'I can't let up on the gangs.' She thought, 'They've made my city rot for years. Now that I have X-COM, we'll see how they like fleeing in terror.'

So this is a basic info update for this particular story. I would have posted it yesterday, but for some reason, I couldn't even upload a chapter to FF. Kept getting errors. Anyone else get that?

Oh, yes. So Taylor gains a Trump rating from the PRT. It is actually a Trump 8 rating, as she can do the MEC Troopers, as well as the Gene Lab AND the medal system. Not to mention the PSI Troopers.